SoC FPGAs offer industry's first with RISC-V processor

Mouser now stocks the PolarFire SoC FPGA family from Microchip Technology. Pulling together low power consumption, defence-grade security, and thermal efficiency, the devices are an excellent option for connected systems and smart applications, including IoT devices.

The SoC FPGAs feature a five-core Linux-capable processor subsystem based on the RISC-V ISA as well as a large, flexible L2 memory subsystem. The devices provide outstanding low-power performance, providing up to 50% lower power than comparable FPGAs. The devices span from 25k to 460k logic elements and feature 12.7G transceivers.

The RISC-V-enabled SoC FPGAs join the company's RISC-V ecosystem, a series of tools and design resources that support various operating systems and ecosystem partners. The high-performance SoC FPGAs aid various applications, including imaging and machine learning, industrial automation, automotive, defence, and communications.

The devices are supported by the PolarFire SoC FPGA Icicle Kit. This low-cost development platform employs onboard memory — including LPDDR4, QSPI, and eMMC flash — to run Linux off the shelf. As well as the onboard PolarFire SoC FPGA, the kit comprises a multi-rail power sensor to monitor different power domains, as well as a PCIe root port and mikroBUS and Raspberry Pi expansion ports. The kit supports a variety of wired connectivity options, facilitating rapid prototyping and quick time to market.